Chief and commissioner could be an option for Brockton Police Department

Lawyers for the mayor's office and the City Council are trying to hammer out a proposal that would put a part-time civilian police commissioner at the top of the Brockton Police Department with a sworn officer serving as a full-time chief directly under him.

BROCKTON – No decision by City Council, further debate needed, including proposal for both leadership positions

After a City Council meeting that left many attendees with more questions than answers concerning the fate of Police Chief Robert Hayden, city officials are looking at how best to move forward with the situation, including a proposal to have both a chief and commissioner lead the department.

Residents and police officers packed City Hall on Monday expecting city councilors to vote on whether to approve an ordinance that would have replaced the position of chief with a civilian police commissioner at the head of the department. However, the vote never occurred and councilors voted instead to send the ordinance to the council’s Finance Committee for further debate.

“I think they were frustrated that it didn’t pass last night, but it couldn’t have, even if we hadn’t sent it to the Finance Committee,” said Ward 1 Councilor Timothy Cruise.

Under the procedures governing the City Council, all ordinances must receive a third reading before the City Council before they can be voted on.

However, Monday night was only the ordinance’s second reading, so regardless of whether the legislation was sent to the Finance Committee, the City Council would not have been able to hold a vote.

While the ordinance is being debated in the Finance Committee, it could undergo some significant changes if a proposal put forth by Ward 6 City Councilor Michelle DuBois can be added to the ordinance.

During a meeting with Mayor Bill Carpenter on Saturday, DuBois said she pitched two proposals, one of which would provide for a sworn officer to serve as a full-time chief under current Chief Robert Hayden, who would then serve as a civilian police commissioner.

Although Carpenter was receptive to the proposal and City Solicitor Philip Nessralla and the City Council’s attorney, Mark Gildea, were working to reach an agreement to amend the ordinance to incorporate into the proposal, it was not brought up at the meeting on Monday due to lingering concerns about the potential impact of the amendment, DuBois said.

DuBois said the proposal is in response to a ruling from the Boston Retirement Board, which stated that Hayden would not be able to freeze his pension while serving as chief or, potentially, commissioner.

City officials also learned from the ruling that, under the state’s pension laws, Hayden is limited to 960 hours of work per year, essentially making him a part-time chief.

“Brockton is just too big of a city with too many moving parts to have a part-time lead enforcement officer,” said DuBois.

Ward 2 City Councilor Thomas Monahan agreed with DuBois’s assessment.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’d look like fools if we had the chief of police in there as a part-timer in a city of 100,000 people,” Monahan said.

At this point, DuBois said that Nessralla and Gildea are working together to try to revise the ordinance in a way that will reflect her original proposal so it can be presented at the next Finance Committee meeting on April 7.

“I’m hopeful that we’re going to be able to get to a place that is acceptable to me so that I can vote in favor of it,” Dubois said.